Food Scraps?

[Baymule]

Mine too...apples, peaches, berries and discarded citrus that got old are a staple in their diets. They will stand next to the deer under the fruit trees and wait for them to drop pieces of peaches and apples out of their mouths and will keep the fruit drops so cleaned up that this waiting for the deer to pluck one for them is sometimes the only way they can get them...until more fruit drops. It's funny to watch because they are like a hungry ring of vultures standing around these poor deer...a silent, waiting, watching ring of birds.

I have a visual of your ring of vultures...........they do that to my Great Pyrenees too. I can't feed her until the hens go to roost! I read this to my DH and we are both laughing! Poor deer! LOL

 

[Andiexb]

I have been creating a bucket on the counter top with celery, carrots, and basically leftovers from our salads, onions, banana peels, etc..... kind of like a homemade compost for my almost eight week old chicks. I've heard some of these things might not be OK to feed my chickens.... Is it????

I doubt they will eat the banana peels. and i have heard that onions aren't good for chickens but people keep saying on here that they do it. I would be careful with chicks, make sure they've had exposure to enough grit to help them digest. and make sure things like carrots are cut small enough for them.

 

[HS Pye]

I doubt they will eat the banana peels. and i have heard that onions aren't good for chickens but people keep saying on here that they do it. I would be careful with chicks, make sure they've had exposure to enough grit to help them digest. and make sure things like carrots are cut small enough for them.

Ours love banana peels. Some like the onions, some don't. Chickens will know what's good and what's not.

 

[reptone30]

I typically feed my chickens their late a pellets along with lettuce, cabbage, cucumbers/peels, tomatoes and even bananas, just not the peel as they are very bitter. I don't feed my 9 buff orps anything I wouldn't eat myself.

 

[Chambertin]

Why would what be thrown in the coop? The bones? Well, whatever you do NEVER give ANY animal a bone because it can splinter it's insides.

Anyone who believes this has never seen a wild animal eat.

"you cant give animals bones" is an old wive's tale and trust me your dog will love you more and be very healthy eating bone after bone.
We had a 14 year old Pekanese and a 12 year old Chao Chao who grew up and old on chicken bones of every size. Best teeth I saw on dogs that age too. The third little guy a Guangdong Akida went crazy for chicken bones of every size and was amazingly healthy.

It is safer to not feed them pin-bones in fish because they can poke the mouth and without fingers are hard to pull out from gums or other annoying places. However there's no reason other than the inconvenience or small chance of a gum infection. (which we never had)

Seriously just watch any wild animal eat small game and you will clearly see how silly the "no bones" rule is.
If they can crush it, they will eat it. If they cant crush it then they will chew it. When that gets boring they leave it be.
If they couldn't process bone they would puke up bone and fur pellets like Owls do.

If an animal doesn't eat it in the wild, then its time to worry.
Chicken are omnivores, they eat anything.
Dogs and cats are carnivores and you cant order boneless meat in the wild.
Plain as that.

 

[Sonya9]

I am curious about all the fuss regarding citrus? My run is in my orchard and so they have plenty of access to all types of citrus - thwy don't seem very interested in it nor have I ever had a problem.

This was probably already answered and I am not sure it is the reason they say it is bad for chickens but d-limonene from citrus peels is considered toxic. It is one of the active ingredients in some flea shampoos. I know male pet rats cannot have orange juice (because the peels get crushed during the manufacturer) or citrus rinds because it will cause cancer.

I am guessing it may have similar bad side effects on chickens.

 

[Sonya9]

Dogs and cats are carnivores and you cant order boneless meat in the wild.
Plain as that.

There is one HUGE caveat to that! They also don't COOK their bones/meat in the wild!

RAW chicken and RAW chicken bones is fine for cats and dogs. Cooked poultry bones spinter badly and can cause shards to become lodged in the throat which is often fatal particularly for dogs.

Lots of dogs are on raw meat diets, mine adore raw chicken and will eat every shred, bone and all however I never ever ever let them near cooked chicken bones as those are a serious health risk (unless they were cooked into a soft sludge and ground up or something which I don't do).

Chickens may be able to tolerate them just fine though, they do eat hard shelled bugs and rocks as it but for dogs it is verboten.

 

[peeweesfarm]

you know I was out moose hunting an came across a brown bear scat pile now I've lived here in Alaska for most of my life an spent a lot of that in the woods , that said it was what was in the scat pile that amazed me . It was the bones of a Moose calf ribs , the crushed head(scull),pelvic legs hec the hole darn calf for size think of a 2 week old beef calf. So bones to pets well everybody has there own opinion mine is I don't feed them.

 

[karron]

Can anyone tell me if it is ok to give poppy seeds to the chicken? I have some leftover poppy seeds which I bought to make a cake. They will soon expire so I thought I might give them to the chicks. Have anyone tried that?

 

[SNJchickens]

Poppy seeds are fine. I haven't found a seed that my girls DON'T like.